PolyCentric University News Center

The Prioritization and Recovery Initiative recommendations have been formally set aside. University President Michael Ortiz met with the executive committee of the Academic Senate on Nov. 30 to begin a dialogue on a new model and process to strategically allocate resources at the university.

On Nov. 14, the Academic Senate passed a resolution suspending the initiative process until some inherent problems could be addressed. During an Academic Senate meeting on Nov. 28, Ortiz responded to the resolution and answered questions from the senators and other attendees. More than 100 people attended the meeting that lasted about two hours. During the gathering, Ortiz recognized the outpouring of reaction to phase one of the academic subcommittee’s recommendations. Toward the end of the meeting, the president invited the Executive Committee of the Academic Senate to partner with him to develop a new way to move forward by developing a strategic plan for the university.

“The university became too focused on the individual recommendations instead of looking at the strands behind the proposals,” said Ortiz. “Even though we will move away from the specific recommendations, we cannot lose momentum. There is a wealth of data that has been gathered that merit refinement and further consideration. The university will progress with a different approach that mirrors the collective values of the entire campus community.”

The P&R Initiative began in April 2005 and focused on areas of improvement and efficiency across campus. The process aimed to empower the campus community to shape a model university for the next generation of students. Based on data collected from each program on campus, one subcommittee evaluated academic programs and another evaluated support programs. Both subcommittees were charged with evaluating respective campus programs and developing proposals based on common criteria. These recommendations could have affected funding for the programs, including: increased support, decreased support, restructuring, and discontinuing.

The process created one of the most dynamic dialogues in university history. Hundreds of students, faculty, staff, alumni and other stakeholders provided written and oral feedback to the recommendations, as well as developing detailed reports on the current condition of all campus programs.

“I cannot be more proud of the hard work and efforts of our campus community especially the Academic Programs Committee and the SupportPrograms Committee,” said Ortiz. “This initiative created an extraordinary amount of data, a rich resource that will inform any future process.”

President Ortiz will elaborate on his thoughts about the P&R Initiative in his fall video address to the university. The video will be posted on PolyCentric in the coming week.